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Majority support for Government takeover of TasWater

The Property Council of Australia, Tasmania Division has released figures showing a majority of Tasmanians support the State Governments proposed takeover of TasWater.

The Reachtel telephone survey of some 1,622 Tasmanians conduced on Wednesday this week revealed 50.6 per cent supported the State Government taking over water and sewerage, while 27.2 per cent did not and 22.2 per cent of the community did not know or were undecided.

Property Council Tasmanian Division Executive Director, Brian Wightman said interestingly the survey saw some one in four Tasmanians have had difficulties with TasWater charges, water and sewerage supply or connections.

“Of those one in four respondents who had difficulty with their TasWater services, nearly half or 45 per cent had to wait for more than a month for the problem to be rectified,” Mr Wightman said.

Mr Wightman said with majority support for the State Government to take over TasWater and high levels of poor service highlighted in the survey, the community supports equitable water and sewerage services across the state.

“There are 25 of TasWater’s supply systems which are under temporary or permanent boil water alerts or do not consume advisories,” he said.

“Only one of Tasmania’s 78 sewerage treatment plants received the full tick of approval from the environmental regulator last financial year, while we had 2895 sewer main breaks and blockages over the same period.

“We need first world water and sewerage in Tasmania.

“Local government says it can deliver first world services in ten years, but the State Government says they can do it in nearly half that time, while also ensuring price rises are kept to a minimum.

“Put simply, the community owns TasWater and the survey shows high levels of dissatisfaction with the job that has been done by local government, so it is time to get the State Government to fix the problem to ensure all Tasmanians have the water and sewerage services they deserve.”

The results at a glance:

ReachTEL conducted a survey of 1,622 residents across the state of Tasmania on the night of 10th May 2017.

Who do you think runs TasWater now?

It is local council who owns and operates TasWater. The State Government wants to take control of TasWater so there is accountability, do you support the this move?

Do you trust local council to run TasWater?

Have you had a problem with TasWater charges, your water and sewerage supply or connections?

If so, how long did it take TasWater to fix it?

Note: Only respondents who answered ‘Yes’ to Question 4 were included in Question 5